Owner of Timberland, Vans stops buying Brazilian leather as Amazon burns

August 29, 2019 - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Latin America - The U.S. parent company of apparel and shoe brands Timberland, Vans and the North Face will no longer buy Brazilian leather, it said today, as surging forest fires in the Amazon raise questions about how companies are contributing to the destruction of the world's largest rainforest. Thousands of forest fires in the Amazon have been raging for weeks, which has already led to heightened scrutiny of Brazil's beef industry, one of the country's main economic engines.